October iPhone 12 event: AirTags delayed until 2021 according to leak

By Oliver Haslam
published

Airtags Rende
Airtags Rende (Image credit: Jon Prosser / FPT)

What you need to know

  • Apple was expected to announce its long-awaited AirTags during its October event.
  • A new leak suggests that isn't the case.
  • We'll be waiting until next year at the earliest.

Apple's October 13 event is going to bring new iPhones, but we also hoped that we'd finally see AirTags shown for the first time. Now it seems that won't be the case, assuming prolific leakster Jon Prosser is on the ball with this one.

In a tweet overnight, Prosser dropped the bombshell that not only will AirTags not be announced during next week's event, but also that we won't see them at all this year. Instead, March 2021 is currently penciled in as the launch window.

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At this point, AirTags is fast becoming the AiPower of 2019/2020. And who would want to bet against it missing its March 2021 window, too?

For those who have been living under a soundproof rock for the last 18 months, AirTags are thought to be Apple's answer to Tile and other similar item trackers. We've seen leak upon leak of these things but, so far, Apple hasn't been able to get them out the door.

Now, at least, it seems that 2020 isn't going to be the year of the AirTag. At least it'll take some of the attention from AirPower!

Oliver Haslam
Oliver Haslam
Contributor

Oliver Haslam has written about Apple and the wider technology business for more than a decade with bylines on How-To Geek, PC Mag, iDownloadBlog, and many more. He has also been published in print for Macworld, including cover stories. At iMore, Oliver is involved in daily news coverage and, not being short of opinions, has been known to 'explain' those thoughts in more detail, too.

Having grown up using PCs and spending far too much money on graphics card and flashy RAM, Oliver switched to the Mac with a G5 iMac and hasn't looked back. Since then he's seen the growth of the smartphone world, backed by iPhone, and new product categories come and go. Current expertise includes iOS, macOS, streaming services, and pretty much anything that has a battery or plugs into a wall. Oliver also covers mobile gaming for iMore, with Apple Arcade a particular focus. He's been gaming since the Atari 2600 days and still struggles to comprehend the fact he can play console quality titles on his pocket computer.